February 2014: The Bird Edition

CONSERVATION IN ACTION

Paso Pacifico is stopping children from killing birds by replacing slingshots with binoculars. This program started three years ago and has taught over 120 children about the wonder of birds and placed quality binoculars in the hands of children eager to learn.

Bird education is an essential part of this program and includes lessons on bird behavior, migratory patterns, and species specific to the tropics such as parrots and trogons. Paso Pacifico hopes to reach many more kids through this program so we have launched a fundraising campaign to raise $10,500. We are nearly halfway to our goal.

But we have a long way to go!

We need your support to continue educating the next generation of Nicaraguan environmental stewards and to protect the avian communities of the Paso del Istmo.

For more information on this campaign please visit this website.

PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE

We are tremendously grateful for our partnership with Optics for the Tropics, an organization building the capacity of bird conservation in Central America by providing quality optical equipment and training.

Optics for the Tropics provides matching funding to make it possible to buy bincoulars from Eagle Optics at a steep discount. The Binoculars for Slingshots program his helping to enrich the lives of rural children in southwestern Nicaragua.

Partnerships like these are helping us to build the next generation of environmental stewards in Nicaragua.

This month on Instagram:

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Marlon Sotelo is one of Paso Pacifico's valued team members. Marlon has a Masters of Science in Management and Conservation from the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. He is skilled in wildlife biology, GIS, natural resource management, and agroforestry planning.

Marlon currently heads up Paso Pacifico’s migratory bird monitoring in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry.

ACT NOW

Habitat mapping, reforestation, community outreach and education are all part of our bird conservation strategy. Our current fundraising campaign helps support our Binoculars for Slingshots educational program.

Support us here!

IN GRATITUDE

Dr. Wayne Arendt has been leading the Paso Pacifico and IITF partnership to monitor resident and migratory birds in the Paso del Istmo since 2009. Every year, twice a year during the migration season, a team of Nicaraguan ornithologists and technicians visit permanent transects at three sites traversing the Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor.

Dr. Arendt serves as a mentor to these biologists and analyzes the data resulting from this work. Arendt knows the value of long-term monitoring. He and his colleagues have the longest running avian community monitoring program in the Neotropics (41 yrs), and he and his students have been researching avian populations in Nicaragua since 1996.

Thanks again Wayne!